Last week's Bento Adventures

First of all I must apologize for taking a hiatus from blogging last week.  My mother was down visiting from California so I was soaking up all the time I could while she was here!

Back to business here though, and the Bento's didn't stop while she was here...so here is me playing catch up from last week!

Monday: sliced cucumbers, with mixed peppers (my daughter can't get enough peppers so I go with it all the time!), Babybel cheese with a cute star shape cutout, and a cup of mandarin oranges to finish off her snack container.  For her main lunch she has bologna flowers with homemade cookies she made with daddy the night before.

Tuesday: Homemade omelette with chopped peppers and ham inside (yup, peppers again!), bologna rolls with cute little animal pics holding them together, some cheese and cracker rounds, and a couple dried apricots to finish off the big box.  Her snack box had a homemade apple cinnamon mini muffin, skewers of fresh yummy pinneapple, and some heart shaped cucumbers with carrot sticks :D

Wednesday: A few different munchies for her snack container today; bologna rolls (the kid loves bologna so I have to give in sometimes and give it to her), cheese slices, dried apricots (must get to grocery store and pick up fresh fruit!), and some star shaped cucumbers with a carrot in the middle to fill (I saved the inside star cut out of cucumber for tomorrow's lunch).  Her main lunch was leftover egg noodles with a bit of butter and parmasean cheese sprinkled over, and a yummy fresh bun.

Thursday: Her snack today was yummy oranges slices (lets keep those illnesses away with Vitamin C intake!) and a few diced strawberries, a cute Babybel with a rabbit cut out (tried free hand cutting it, hope it looks like a rabbit), and a few goldfish crackers in her cute rabbit silicone cup.  Her main lunch was a few mini sandwiches (just got some new cutters to play with, see below), a bear silicone cup with some fruit snacks, and some mixed veggies to top it off.

 

Friday:  her lunch box has a cute fish silicone filled with Craising, and a few pink wafer cookies cut up, then another new toy I just got was used for the cute puzzle sandwich (see below), with a cute little racoon critter peeking out of the puzzle piece.  Then her snack container was filled with a star shaped Babybel, some homemade banana chocolate-chip loaf, a few carrots sliced up fun and an adorable bunny rabbit hard boiled egg with her own cute bow for her ear!

Some fun new toys arrived in my mailbox this week!!  Check out this post for details

New Goodies Arrived today!!

Now that Christmas is done and over with (read: Paid for), I decided to treat my daughter (okay, me) with some new fun things for her Bento Boxes!  here is what I picked out from www.allthingsforsale.com ....

Japanese Bento Accessory Food Pick Hat 3D food picks 8 pcs

 
These are ADORABLE little accent hats and bows I can add to almost anything to make it so much cuter!
How can you beat that for only $3.99  for the set?

Bento Accessories Sandwich Cutter Fun Puzzle

I have been wanting this one for a while but it was always sold out (there is another version I actually wanted more but it is still sold out so I went with this one for now).  I thought this would be a lot of fun for her sandwiches.

Japanese Bento Box Accessories Sandwich Vegetable Cutter 3 Stamps

These cute little stamp like items are going to be cute to use for mini sandwiches, but I have also seen them used as stamps on sides of bananas and such for some added details or even just to cut veggies and fruit into shapes.  The top animals are interchangeable also so you can mix you the shape with the stamp, or just take the stamp off separately and stamp!

 

Japanese Bento Accessories Sandwich Cutter Small Animal and Flower

These Sandwich Cutters are designed to make shapes of rabbit, bear and flower.  It can also be used to cut ham and cheese (or whatever you can come up with!).  After you cut your bread you can place the cuties into your bento box!

Japanese Bento Accessory Food Pick Alphabet Letter Set 26 pcs

These I thought would be adorable for spelling out words in her lunches....but unfortunately they were delayed from the first shipment so I should get them this week!

Can't wait to explore some new fun lunches with my (I mean, her) new toys.......

Literacy Day!

Today was Literacy Day at Lynden's school and they celebrated by inviting parents to come participate in some fun games and reading activities....Of course, in true form, her lunch had to match!  This is what I came up with last minute...

A bologna sandwich made into a book (using fruit leathers cut into shapes for on the book), and of course I think of book worms when I think of reading, but sadly I had no gummy worms so I just had to settle with making a BabyBel apple (by using the red BabyBel and putting a cute leaf pic into the top).  Then of course we had to have fun with letters so I cut the alphabet out of cucumber slices (with a cute lion pic) and put a cute little rabbit cup with Alpha-Bits :D  In her snack container I included some fresh orange slices (cut off the skins for it to be easier to eat), some red and yellow peppers, some homemade banana chocolate chip loaf and a cute little egg shaped like a teddy bear (darn pic doesn't show how cute it is).

Read any good books lately to recommend for literacy week?  Children's or Adult books?

Our Bento Adventures this week

Our week in Bento Boxes......

Monday: I used the CuteZCute cutter for the sandwich (using a regular slice for the actual face and then cutting out the eyes, ears and mouth from the crust end so that I got a different colour), a few carrots and peas with a cute little bear pic, a homemade choc chip cookie we made together the night before.  Then for her other box I sliced up some strawberries using my strawberry cutter (all about cute presentation!), a Babybel with star cut out, and then a boiled egg.  For the boiled egg I used my cute little egg molds, this one was a rabbit.  Basically all you do is make your regular boiled egg, peel when still hot, then place into the greased mold while hot and then into the fridge as normal.  The next morning or probably a few hours later the molded egg is all cute and ready to use!

Tuesday: Another CuteZCute Bento day today, they are too much fun!  She got a cute little piggy sandwich today, with a teddy bear cup filled with Dora fruit snacks, a fishy up filled with pretzel sticks, and some cucumber stars, red peppers and snap peas with a cute little leaf pic making the cucumber into a star flower :D  Her snack box had adorable heart shaped strawberries (starting to brainstorm for Valentine's day!), a heart cut out of her BabyBel cheese and some cheddar cheese mini rice cakes.

Wednesday: Today I was just winging it, I wasn't sure a complete plan so I just started and this is what I came up with.  I sliced bread into 4 squares to make it fun and kind of a snack size.  But then I ended up piecing the squares together to get the square face.  Plopped a blueberry for the nose, some decorating edible eyes (Wilton) and a cute red pepper smile....it just wasn't complete though so I went into the fridge and grabbed a string cheese.  I cut the string into 2 pieces and then started peeling the two pieces to make some crazy hair to complete the face!  On the side is some cut up yellow and red peppers (my kid just LOVES peppers so I run with it!)  The other box has some more heart strawberries and blueberries, with a cup of alphabits (Received free to test and review from www.bzzagent.com) and a cute little teddy bear pic peeking out of the letters, then a little cookie for her treat that day.

Thursday's box was posted in a previous post, it was a winter/spring theme.

Its finally Friday!!  Might as well make a cute and fun Bento to liven up spirits during this very cold -30 winter weather we are having (poor kids didn't even get recess yesterday because it was too cold).  So I cut out a couple flowers and made peanut butter flower sandwiches, complete with cucumber grass, leaves and stems and a red pepper center.  Above is a variety of flower veggies (Yellow and red peppers, cucumbers, and carrots) and of course some cute leaf pics to make the flowers complete.  The other box has a mix of snacks (alphabits, goldfish, craisins and an apricot), a flower BabyBel, a few cherry tomatoes and a flower cup of blueberries with a little bear peeking out......please come soon spring!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  Happy creating......

Baby its cold out there...

So, living in Northwestern Ontario, Canada we see some pretty rigid temperatures in winter time.  Many from the South wonder just HOW we survive.  Well, this year it has been VERY unseasonably mild and SO nice to enjoy.....but, we knew that mother nature was peeking around the corner laughing at us and that Jack Frost WOULD catch us sooner or later......well, he has hit!  It was -30 last night when I got home from my soccer game (indoor people, I'm not nuts!), I thought it was appropriate to have a winter themed lunch for my girl to eat.  But, had to throw in some hope for warmth at the same time.  So, I came up with one box depicting winter time and then one box is foreshadowing to Spring time (which we hope is right around the corner!).

Spring box: Ants on a log with celery and cheese with raisins, a Babybel ladybug, and of course some spring cucumber and pepper flowers.

Winter box: Snowflake ham sandwich, a blueberry nutrigrain cereal bar, mixed fruit.  The little snowflakes are actually cupcake toppers and are completely edible in vanilla and blueberry flavor. You can find them in the baking section for the more specialized stores 

Hope the winter weather isn't too harsh where you are, and that you can find some fun and warmth in some fun lunches for the kids!

Bento Supplies Giveaway!

Bento, Monsters is having a GREAT Giveaway to celebrate their 400th Blog post.....check it out!




To enter go to their blog: Giveaway

GOOD LUCK!

What's in the Box tomorrow?

So, I took a weekend off this weekend, that never happens!  I didn't really do a lot of housecleaning and didn't even run for groceries!  So, today's Bento is all about using up what is left in the fridge because I need to grocery shop tomorrow for the week ahead....been there done that?

So, for her main lunch box I had some leftover ham to use up quick so I made some muffin tin omelettes (explained below), then tossed in a fresh bun (with a cute little heart ring stuck in the middle for fun).  I sliced up a few strawberries (I did make a little run the other day for fresh fruit for the weekend thankfully) in my cute little strawberry cutter.

For her nutrition break (10:40 break) I put in a few crackers and cheese, and then cut up some mixed veggies (snap peas, carrots and her fav red peppers).  Did you know that red peppers actually have more vitamin C in them than Oranges?  I was shocked when I found that out, eat up!

Muffin Tin Omelettes

- Grease muffin tin

- put a slice or two (your preference depending on the thickness) of ham in the muffin tin just like you would a muffin liner

- Put 1 egg (or 2 egg whites) into the ham cup

- add any yummy extras you want in your omelette (mushrooms, peppers, spinach, asparagus, etc.)

- top with cheese of your choice

- bake at 350 for about 20 minutes